Some Biographies are written, Some are commissioned and a few are painted in to Beautiful Portraits. So, when I bought the Biography of the Billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, I didn’t expect it to be a critical look into the life of an Orthodox Royal. I expected it to be an All-Praises affair, and it turned out to be exactly that. However, I didn’t expect it to be just a superficial chronological record of events in the Prince’s Life.
The book can however be enjoyed by Value Investors, although only slightly. There is a long list of the deals done by the Prince which demonstrate how his approach to Investments (similar to Warren Buffett’s) turned his millions into billions. However, there are no insights, lessons or even details in some cases. Its just a long list of deals. The Value Investors can immediately recognize Prince’s Genius, but there could have been more information.
If you are reading it for the politics, you’ll get things like the 9/11 $10 Million dollars donation to Rudy Giuliani and the subsequent Press Release mentioning US Foreign Policy on Palestine; The birth of Middle Eastern media like Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabia; The Biased Image of Arab Nations in the West and vice versa; Prince’s in numerous attempts to bridge the gap between the West and East etc. again with just mentions and not much detail.
There is an accompanying DVD with the book which makes all the difference to the very simple writing style used in the book. That’s where you get to see the Real Prince. His fast paced style becomes evident and the Prince’s sheer energy can be motivational for a Newbie to self employment.
The story of the Prince is unique in the sense that it is a Riches to Ultra-Riches story. It describes what happens when you are given the best and you push it even further. For the Investment community, the book shows that the Value Investment principles from “Graham And Doddsville” work no matter where you start from. For political skeptics, it provides the Arab side of the story for the West vs Middle East conflict. For me the book feels a bit too simple compared to the Prince Alwaleed’s awesome Personality and His actions both in Business and otherwise.